Welcome back to Term 4.

Tomorrow is the feast of St Teresa of Avila. St Teresa has a special place in the heart of Mount Carmel as our College is built on the land of the Discalced Carmelites and we share Our Lady as a patron. St Teresa founded this order and shared a devotion to Jesus through His mother. She is a role model for all of our students but our females in particular. St Teresa was named a ‘Doctor of the Church’ which is an honour of the highest order. She questioned the experiences of the church in which she lived and encouraged people to consider not only the teachings and values espoused by Jesus, but also the way they might be implemented within their lives. For this reason, we have one of our College houses named after St Teresa (Avila) as a way for our students to emulate her lifestyle and experiences. Avila will celebrate their House Day in a few weeks and I congratulate these students and wish them a happy feast day.

Next week we will start to see some changes around the College as a result of the commencement of our building program. This program will take 18 months or so for full completion however, stages will be completed at various points during that time. The full program involves the construction of a two-story STEM building (Science and TAS) with total refurbishment of three buildings and partial refurbishment of another three spaces. The program will conclude with the demolition of three other buildings and landscaping of the space currently occupied by the science, G and H buildings. The overall plans were shown at a Parents and Friends’ meeting last year and will be on the agenda for our next meeting in week 5 (Nov 8). There will be re-rooming and some disruption during this process however, we have been very conscious of minimising this and completing works when they will have the least negative impact. Temporary fences will be erected in the next week or two at the rear of the property as the STEM building begins. The refurbishment of the College began two years ago with improvements to the library and B block spaces. Overall, by the completion of this program, almost every space in the College will have been assessed and developed. Students will be told of each change as it happens, and I encourage parents to attend the P&F meeting if you would like to see more of what we are doing.

In terms of our next P&F meeting, parents will have the opportunity before this to attend a Parent Literacy Evening run by Mrs Murphy, our Literacy Instructional Coach. Mrs Murphy has run a number of these evenings this year and the parents who have attended have found them valuable and interesting. Those choosing to stay can then attend the P&F if you would like.

Thank you to a number of our Year 12 teachers who came in during their holidays to run revision classes with our Year 12 students. This type of dedication and commitment by staff and students has been a large contributor to the successes over the past few years. We wish all our HSC students the best as they undertake their HSC exams.